Are You on a Slow Simmer?

There’s an old metaphor about a frog in boiling water. If you drop a frog in a pot of boiling water, he will immediately jump out because of the sudden, drastic change in temperature. If, however, you put a frog in a pot of tepid water and slowly bring it to a boil, the temperature change will be so subtle that the frog will never know what hit him as he boils to death.

People are very similar to the frog when it comes to identifying underlying health problems and seeking out help with their correction. Based on the perceived severity of the problem, you are either driven to action, or more prone to let the problem continue as a mere annoyance.

Those who have suffered a major trauma such as an auto accident, work injury, or slip and fall are like a frog dropped in boiling water. Because they have undergone such sudden and massive physical change they seek immediate action in correcting the damage done and look to professional help without delay. Bear in mind that these are the same people who would normally overlook more minor aches and pains without a second thought.

Why does one act so quickly in a situation like this? The injury happens so suddenly and swings them so far from their comfort zone that they will do whatever it takes to bring things back to normalcy as quickly as possible. After all, a knock in your engine is something that you would typically let go for awhile, but a sudden cloud of smoke billowing from under the hood would likely spur you to immediate action.

The majority of people, however, are like a frog in tepid water, on a slow simmer until eventually being brought to a boil. Most subluxations develop over time, and because they are often very subtle, and many times painless, the danger of their impact on our bodies goes unnoticed.

Over time, however, these subluxations are no less devastating to us than boiling water is to the frog. A slow drip in your attic might not seem like a big deal, but its cumulative effects can eventually send your ceiling crashing down.

Until we get into the habit of being proactive when it comes to our health, these “simmering” subluxations will always be a threat. Neutralizing that threat requires that we shift our thinking away from pain-based, symptom-relief care and more toward a system built around prevention and wellness.

If you know someone who has not been examined for subluxations yet, regardless of whether or not they are exhibiting any symptoms, send them in for a chiropractic evaluation. 

Let’s get them the help they need before their pot comes to a boil!

WHY I BECAME A DOCTOR OF CHIROPRACTIC!

“Because I honor the inborn potential of everyone to be truly healthy. Because I desire to help the newborn, the aged, and those without hope. Because I choose to care for the patient with the disease, not the disease. Because I wish to assist rather than intrude; to free rather than control. Because I seek to correct the cause, and not its effect. Because I know that doctors do not heal, only the body can heal itself. Because I have been called to serve others. Because I want to make a difference. Because every day I get to witness miracles. Because I know it is right.”

The Last Resort

THE LAST RESORT

She sat before me, broken, with no ideas on how to be corrected. I got the distinct impression that I was her last resort on this viscious cycle she had been riding for so long.

I just finished seeing a new patient, who, in all respects, has run the full gammut of our traditional health care system. 

This young woman had an accident a couple of years ago and since has been on a steady decline in health and has been ingesting a steady supply of pain killers just to function throughout the day. This woman 1 year post divorce and who has a young son, told me that she has been suffering for such a long time, thoughts of taking drastic measures have even entered her mind in the past. She has been to doctors, many, many doctors, who haven't been able to tell her why she is feeling so poorly or why she continues this steady decline. She has been referred from specialist to specialist, with no apparent end in sight. The final diagnosis from all of those doctor visits...Fibromyalgia?

I performed my intial evaluation on this patient, I located a number of potential problem areas and I felt deep down that these dysfunctional areas where having a drastic impact on this woman's life. After I performed my first adjustment, this hopeless woman all of a sudden looked alive again. The light shined in her eyes as if a veil had suddenly been lifted off. She told me that her pain just dropped in half following whatever I just did! For the first time in a long time, she felt relief, she felt hope.

Following my treatment she began directing a barrage of questions towards me. The questions ranged from the whys to the hows. The main one though was the one I expected...."How come no one ever found this before with me?" I couldn't really tell her why no one ever located her problem, but I explained to her that most physicians simply treat symptoms, they never really treat causes. I am different, I look at the the cause of dysfunction, not the surface results. Seeing how this woman responded helped to reaffirm my decision to enter into this profession. Chiropractic works. Such a simple statement, yet so powerful.

I told this patient that the road wasn't always going to be easy, nor was it going to be quick, but we were on the right path now and we are going to continue moving forward towards her goal of getting healthy. She understood, she smiled, she thanked me. She thanked me for caring, she thanked me for explaining, she thanked me for giving her hope. It wasn't gratitude I was looking for though, all I wanted was to be the one who could help this person.

After she left my office, I started thinking a bit more about the power of what I do, and an article from B.J. Palmer I have posted before came to mind. It couldn't have been more fitting, so I'll end this post with a link to it. The passage is entitled "The Big Idea" and that is exactly what it is. It explains why I do exactly what I do ever single day with every single patient. The impacts I can have on people's lives are endless. I truly love what I do.

The Big Idea   

STRESSED OUT?

STRESS

Here’s a simple check of your anxiety level: try to lower your shoulders. If you could – if your shoulders were tense – your body is in defense physiology. You are ready to defend yourself against attack. But you aren’t in danger – you are supposedly relaxed while reading this article. Keeping your shoulders raised is just one clue that you are not relaxed – you are “stressed out.” Other stress clues include sensations of a “knot” in your stomach or your heart pounding, feeling tense or nervous most of the time, habitual foot-bouncing or finger-tapping, teeth- grinding, jaw-clenching, or coming “unglued” easily. Unless you are in a crisis situation, you should be reasonably relaxed.


Raised shoulders mean tight muscles that are constantly poised for defense. The fuse on your disease-producing time bomb is getting shorter.


How Stress Affects your Body
We depend on defense responses to high-stress events to get ourselves geared up to survive critical situations. Quick defensive responses help protect us from accidents and injury. If man couldn’t adapt quickly to threatening situations, none of us would have survived this long. Responses to stress are normal, natural, and necessary; but constant defensiveness is not appropriate or healthy.


When you are under any kind of stress – life-threatening or just irritating – your body is stimulated. Organs and glands change gears and speed up or slow down activity as needed. Body functions, or physiology, prepare for defense. Your adrenal glands are activated, and increased amounts of energy are ready to be used. Blood pressure goes up, digestion slows, muscles tense, and your overall physiology prepares to help you survive. This all happens in a split second. This process is known as fight or flight.


Stress from an emergency is over in a short time. However, stress from anxiety, worry or anger keeps your body in defense physiology 24 hours a day whether you are awake or asleep. Anxiety affects every cell of your body. Your adrenal glands work overtime. Sooner or later, they become exhausted and your body must rely on other glands to handle the stress responses. In time, these glands lose their ability to function properly. Eventually, your body becomes exhausted and normal, repairing and healing processes are put on “hold.” 


You are a candidate for pain or disease
Anxiety and worry are more devastating to your body than the emergency type of stress that comes with a frightening brush with a potential physical disaster. Anxiety goes on and on with little relief. As physiological exhaustion sets in, the internal processes that keep your body going can’t operate efficiently to repair day-to-day wear and tear. Pain develops, and the “welcome” mat is out for disease. Pain, indigestion, headaches, allergies, and other symptoms can oftentimes be seen as the effects of long-term anxiety.


Defense Physiology – Good News and Bad News
An active response to emergencies can save your life. In a life threatening situation, you usually feel your heart pound and race, and you may be aware that your muscles are more tense than usual. However, you aren’t aware that the blood supply increases to muscles that you may need to use to run or fight. You don’t notice that some of your organ functions (like digestion and assimilation of food) slow down. You don’t need to waste energy processing food if you’re about to be hit by a car or attacked by a snarling dog.


The same physiological adaptations for defense are made in response to less physically dangerous situations – an unexpected summons by your boss, an important examination, or disturbing family problems. You’re not in danger of being injured or killed, however, you are anxious. In our “civilized” world, we generally can’t respond to anxiety-producing situations by physically “fighting back” or “running away.” We try to hide our defensive instincts – we store them for future reference.


Yet even something as simple as getting tied up in traffic can spark a defense response. The energy needed to run or fight is generated but there is no outlet for that energy. Frustrations take their toll because the body stays in a constant state of emergency. It can’t return to its normal, natural state.


Relieve Habitual Tenseness
We never “forget” anything, including how we have responded to stressful situations in the past. For example, if you are nervous when speaking to a group, you probably experience the same feelings of nervousness and fear each time you get up to speak. During similar stress of public speaking in the past, patterns of the physiological responses were stored in your subconscious mind. These stored patterns stay available in your subconscious mind to be used again and again.


Each time you encounter a situation similar to the one that “set” the pattern, your body reacts in the same way it did when the pattern was imprinted.


Let’s suppose that one day in school when you were very young, you were called on to recite. You weren’t sure of what you were supposed to say, but you mumbled a reply anyway. Some of the other students made fun of you. You were highly embarrassed. Embarrassment is a very strong emotion. We go to great lengths to avoid it. However, a single, small incident such as being very embarrassed can firmly fix in your subconscious the relationship between speaking before a group and the threat of embarrassment. For years after, whenever you try to speak to a group, your body responds to the “threat” by following the prescribed pattern of physiological defense.


If you react with intense feeling when the memory of an event or person in your past is stimulated, the reaction patterns to that event or person have become a part of your physiology. Tense muscles, shallow or deep breathing, continual flow of adrenaline, and other adapted functions can become the standard for the way your body functions.


Updating Defense Patterns
In order for your body to function normally again, gentle adjustments help you to function at your optimum and to update outmoded patterns that have been keeping your body in defense physiology.
It isn’t necessary for you or your doctor to know the circumstances that brought about a particular defensive habit pattern. It is the response pattern – not the event – that causes physical problems. You can never “forget” events of your past. The patterns of response to these events can be updated so that your body can function naturally again.


We can find the storage area of inappropriate subconscious response patterns by observing where tension is stored in your body. By adjusting your subluxations and monitoring these areas of tension we can signal your body that a new relaxed response pattern is now appropriate. With the new relaxation patterns in place, your body will function without defensive adaptations.


With response patterns updated to reflect more relaxed muscle tone and free of defense physiology your innate wisdom is better able to balance your body’s operation systems to allow them to function in harmony. In this office we are concerned with your whole being – not just muscles, joints, and organs. When you keep your nervous system functioning at its optimum, your body is better able to withstand the effects of everyday stress and resist disease.


Stress can come from physical trauma, mental anguish, emotional upsets, and chemicals and poisons. We all experience stressful situations throughout our lives. There is no cure for stress – we need stress. But stress RESPONSES don’t have to dominate your life. We can help you develop more appropriate physiological response patterns to past experiences. Relaxed, defense-free response patterns to non-threatening day-to-day events mean a healthier, more disease-free, pain-free life.


Take the simple shoulder-lowering “stress test” described at the beginning of this article throughout the day. You may be surprised at how helpful it is to realize that you are physiologically defensive. When you begin to relax, you reduce muscle tenseness.

TOP PRIORITY

----TOP PRIORITY----

Priority is defined as “that which takes precedence” . . . “that which is more important”. We handle our lives on a priority basis in doing those things which seem most important to us at the time. The word priority takes on a more significant meaning to those patients/practice members who are sincerely interested in regaining their health. People go to a doctor because they hurt somewhere, or some function of the body is not normal. Whatever the initial problem, it may or may not be in priority. If the area of pain happens to be in priority, you will feel great after the first treatment/adjustment and be convinced that your doctor has worked a miracle.


There is a decided difference in “not hurting” and “regaining health”. The elimination of pain is more easily accomplished but a return to health can be a long and hard fought struggle. The end result of the return to health, however, far outweighs the mere subsiding of pain. If you are choosing the return to health, you must understand that the body will heal itself on a priority basis. Your body’s healing energy will be directed to repairing the most serious problem that you have. To actually get well, the body must be allowed the time and the opportunity to repair everything that needs repair. The body will do this on a very definite priority schedule.


If you think about this, it is quite reasonable. Everything that the body does is reasonable, logical, even though at times we are inclined to feel that it might not be. Intense pain seems totally wrong, and yet it is the perfectly logical process for the body to warn that something is wrong. Pain and other symptoms will change as the priority of the body changes. All function and repair is according to priority. We run our lives on priority. You might like to go fishing, but you realize that you have to go to work to make money to pay bills. Going to work will take priority over going fishing. Each day we make innumerable decisions and judgements, and we act according to what we decide is priority.


Occasionally we might make a mistake in establishing our priorities, but the innate intelligence within the body does not make mistakes. This infinite wisdom that created you from two cells and guided your development and growth never makes a mistake in priority. It always chooses wisely and decisively. If your painful shoulder is not responding as quickly as you (and your doctor) would like it to, you can be assured that your body is directing the healing force to some part of your body that needs the attention more at that particular time. Some other area of your body is in higher priority. Tomorrow or the next day, an entirely different part of your body may be in the top priority.


This happens because your body rebuilds itself as a total unit and not piece by piece. That is, it would be foolish for your body to completely rebuild and repair your kidneys if your heart were to last only two more days. It will, for example, improve your kidneys perhaps 5%, then change priority and work on your heart. When the heart is improved to the point at which it is no longer the worst thing wrong with you, then our body’s wisdom will direct its attention to another organ or part of your body. It is a little like remodeling your kitchen. The carpenters reach a certain point and then the plumbers take over. When they have done just so much, the electricians have a job to do. It should all be well planned and coordinated and all finished at the same time.


Your body’s energy must be balanced and flowing to allow your body the chance to accurately select its top priority, and to do the proper job of making repairs. Rebuilding and repair is done by your body when you sleep. Just how well it is done depends on how well your body’s energy is balanced and flowing. During our waking hours, the body is concerned with activity, balance, and all the thousands of little evaluations and reflexes that allow us to stand, walk, eat, and all the other things we do. There just is not energy available at this time for repair. If you are busy riding a bicycle, you do not have time to trim your fingernails.


The body requires a lot of energy just standing upright. In fact, this job of standing is actually fighting against the effects of gravity which is always a priority situation. When you lie down, the “righting reflex” should be automatically turned off, and in a balanced body, it will be. If your energy is out of balance because you are subluxated, your body’s communication will be faulty, and some of the postural muscles may still be engaged. This is evidenced in those people who cannot relax when they lie down.
Let us put it another way. When the body is upright, the conscious mind is in action. We function in relationship to the information we derive from our senses – what we see, hear, smell, etc. Our innate intelligence, or that intelligence that built us, is busy with the maintenance of our bodies . . . the housekeeping chores.


When we lie down, the conscious mind should be shut off and innate intelligence should take over complete control of the body. Only then can this intelligence do the repair and rebuilding. The person who is subluxated and whose body is out of balance energy-wise and whose body is therefore not communicating properly is unable to “turn off” the conscious mind. It is still active, thus interfering with the Innate repair of the body. Repair is an Innate or sub-conscious function, not a function of the conscious mind.
When the conscious mind remains active during sleep, we sleep poorly and awaken just as tired as when we went to bed.


Medications of any kind will alter the priority of the body by fooling the body’s intelligence. An aspirin may mask the pain of a headache, but this is accomplished only at the expense of interrupting the body’s normal communication. If the fire alarm is disconnected, pushing the buzzer will accomplish nothing. The fire is certainly in priority, but if communication system is not intact, no one will find out about the fire and nothing will be done about it.


The body’s use of priority is seldom a totally one-sided situation. More often it is perhaps 75% and 25%. For example, a patient comes into our office with a severe sciatic pain. Her scans reveal imbalance at the level of the spine that innervates the heart. Her exam and history confirms there is serious heart trouble. The sciatic condition is actually a minor problem when compared to the condition of the heart (major). That which is causing pain is not necessarily that which is the most serious to survival.


We begin adjusting this practice member and gradually the sciatic pain diminishes and at the same time cardiac function also improves. During the course of care, the symptoms of leg pain can diminish and then recur several times while the body’s wisdom alternates repair between the major and the lesser condition.


A re-check of the spine and the scans show an improvement in the lumbar spine and pelvis structure related to the lessened sciatic pain, but it may also show a marked decrease in the imbalance at the area that innervates the heart. The body wisely places the most serious condition in priority, but evidently the major problem needs only a portion of the available energy and the rest can be directed to helping the lesser problem.


Oftentimes you will experience a pendulum swing – your neck may feel better than ever but your low back is awful. The next day the pendulum may swing and your neck may feel awful and your low back may feel great. The pendulum swings from left to right and from up to down.


In reality, to really get well, you must keep your body free of subluxations, follow a good nutritional program, maintain a positive mental outlook, and have patience in allowing sufficient time for your body to heal itself. Make sure that you are doing nothing to stimulate or to inhibit your body. The beautiful intelligence within your body, that built your body, can then follow its own priority schedule. Keep me informed of changes in how you feel, but be happy with the ups and the downs, as these represent priority changes and indicate that you are truly on the road back to good health.

GIVE YOUR BODY WHAT IT NEEDS!

Giving Your Body What It Needs

The human body is the most incredible machine on the planet. It is designed to heal, grow, and function if you give it what it needs. Most people understand if you do not take in enough vitamins and minerals you will get sick. Different conditions can be the result of being deficient in different nutrients. If you do not get enough sleep most people know that the body will not function properly. People also know that if you take in too much of something you can also get sick. Alcohol, nicotine, sugar, salt, and caffeine are examples of such things.

What many people do not understand is how important the nervous system is. Your brain sends signals down the spinal cord, along nerves, to every cell, tissue, and organ in your body. If you cut the nerve to an area of the body, that area will not function. It is like cutting the power cord to a lamp. If you do this the lamp will not work. Now imagine a lamp with a cord that has been frayed, but not cut in half. The light may still work, but you may end up with a light that gets dimmer and brighter or flickers on and off. No matter what you do to try to correct the problem, change the light bulb, plug it into another outlet, or shake it, the problem will remain. The only way to correct the problem is to make sure the wires are touching and the connection is solid.

Spinal misalignments cause irritation to the nerves. Your organs, tissues, and cells at the end of an irritated nerve will not function properly. If you end up with a health problem because of this, you will look for a cure. No matter how much medication you take it will not correct this problem. It may mask the symptoms for a while, but the only true solution is to remove the irritation or interference. Once this occurs, your miraculous body will function better. It is essential to give the body what it needs in order to heal. In this case, it is less interference.

Could your ongoing health problems be due to interference to your nerves? There is one way to find out.  Stop in to The Joint, We've Got Your Back!

How Healthy Are You?

HOW HEALTHY ARE YOU?
Imagine we put a pebble in your shoe.  You are not allowed to remove the pebble yourself.  How long do you think it would take before your foot began to bother you?  How about your ankle, your knee, maybe your back? Perhaps you'll even get a headache.  Is it possible that you would be irritable and unable to concentrate?  Perhaps you might snap at your spouse, child, parent, teacher or co-worker.  


Now you can obviously take some painkillers to block the pain for awhile.  You can live and deal with the pin and eventually your body will become numb to the problem and adapt as the body does.  You can go and have a hole cut in your foot for the pebble to fit better.  OR YOU CAN WORK ON THE PROBLEM AND REMOVE THE PEBBLE.  This is what CHIROPRACTIC does.


Now take that same irritation and place it on your nerves.  What effect do you think it would have on your well being?  How would that influence your attitude and state of mind?  How about the rest of your life?  Do you think you would be functioning at 100% ? What effect would this have on your heart, lungs, or body function?  


How healthy are you?